In This Week’s [em]Observer[/em]…

He Wants You to Love Atlantic Yards
“Laurie Olin, one of the most noted landscape architects in the country, was holding forth in his firm’s library in central Philadelphia. He wants to help us get over our obsession with personal space. So Mr. Olin took on the task for designing the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.”Go to story by Matthew Schuerman.

Macklowes Stomp Back Big with Buy
“In the last week of January, shortly before Blackstone acquired Equity Office Properties for $39 billion, the developer Harry Macklowe decided to make a play for EOP’s New York buildings.”Go to story by John Koblin.

When Alex Met Don…
“In a decidedly unhip slice of Manhattan, two scions of New York real-estate tycoons, average age 27 and a half, plan to create a gleaming, 45-story condo-hotel, a rarity in city development.”Go to story by Gillian Reagan.

Doomed Hotel Penn Sends Other Lodges Scrambling for Doggie Style
“To all the snowbound hounds that received a few extra hours of pampering at the all-too-pooch-friendly Hotel Pennsylvania last week: Lap it up, bitches. The landmark hotel, which every year reserves its best service strictly for four-legged guests, may be history even before next year’s show.”Go to story by Chris Shott.

Moinian Nabs Two Fifth Avenue Addresses for $440 M.
“The developer who is building the new downtown W Hotel is spreading his empire to Fifth Avenue. After buying four buildings on Fifth in the last two years, Joseph Moinian is buying two more for $440 million.”Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin.

Columbia Kingpin Pays $3.48 M. on Central Park West
“Bespectacled Ivy League administrators don’t often get leafy uptown co-ops. But Columbia University senior executive vice president Robert Kasdin and his scholar wife have bought an eight-room apartment at 239 Central Park West. According to city records, they paid $3,485,000.”Screenwriter, Actress Buy on Fifth for $1.26 M.
“The Park Slope-born writer-director Noah Baumbach and his new starlet wife Jennifer Jason Leigh are expanding their current domain at 43 Fifth Avenue: According to city records, the couple paid $1.26 million for their next-door neighbor’s co-op.”Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson.

The Sheriff of Landmarks
“Robert Tierney, chairman of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, talks about 980 Madison and the controversy that pit author Tom Wolfe against developer Aby Rosen.”Go to The Sit-Down by Tom Acitelli.

Mayor Trumpets Building Boom, But We’re Still Bursting at the Seams
“Pity popular New York City. Unlike many other American metropolises (Detroit, Philly, even Cleveland), the city’s population keeps growing steadily, so much so that even record home-building can’t nearly keep up with the influx.”Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli.

Knobs for the Snobs
“The private-equity trader had to have the pumpkin-shaped doorknob in every room. He’d just bought an 1856 townhouse in the West Village, and he and his architect came upon a distinctive period knob in the apartment of one of the rent-regulated tenants that came with the building. They wanted to replicate it–not just in brass, but in bronze. ‘Call Erich!’ said the head of the architecture firm, meaning Erich Theophile, the debonair doorknob king of New York.”Go to Interiors by Toni Schlesinger.